IT could have been so much worse, but it could have been so much better.

When their team was 12 points behind with less than half an hour remaining, most Wire fans would have gladly taken a point on their 170-mile journey home from Newcastle.

However, having busted a gut to turn the game on its head and be mere seconds away from seeing out a famous victory, is a draw really satisfying?

This was a Wigan side decimated by injuries that, from the hour mark onwards, looked absolutely out on its feet. Many will feel Wolves should have taken greater advantage.

They did leave themselves with plenty to do in a first half punctuated by the basic errors and disjointed attack that defined their early-season slump.

Too many times, good field position was wasted and chances squandered while, at the other end, Liam Marshall was making them pay for getting things slightly wrong.

For his first try, Matty Russell gambled on an intercept that just slipped through his fingers while Kevin Brown’s pass deflected into his grateful arms to send him the length of the field for his second.

Daryl Clark’s reply for The Wire was opportunistic as well, perhaps symptomatic of a game that was struggling for rhythm.

Lewis Tierney’s sin-binning perhaps came at the wrong time for Wolves close to the end of the first half. They pressurised but did not have enough time to build momentum before the break.

In fact, they ended their period with a man extra further behind than when it started after Marshall made it seven tries against Wolves this season.

Then, from nowhere, a ray of hope. Brown’s chip for Stefan Ratchford was perfect for him to score before Tom Lineham charged over in the left corner.

In attempting to convert his own try, Ratchford hit the post with a simple-looking kick. Little did we know how crucial that would turn out to be.

Suddenly, it was game on. Warrington had found their mojo and looked set to capitalise on a tiring Wigan outfit.

After the sides swapped penalties, Hughes put a big step on Joe Burgess to waltz through for what looked like the winning try.

The jubilant tones of the Wire faithful reverberated round the vast arena, but Burgess plucked Sean O’Loughlin’s kick from the air to stun them into silence.

That try came from a scrum awarded for a Brown knock-on that seemed marginal at best, but in truth, both sides will feel they should have been out of sight well before that.

INTERESTING NOTES:

. Wolves end a run of three straight defeats to Wigan

. Stefan Ratchford scores his first Wolves Super League try of the season

. Matty Russell makes his 100th career appearance

. Liam Marshall now has seven tries in two games against Warrington in 2017.

MATCH FACTS:

Super League Magic Weekend, Saturday, May 20, 2017

Wigan Warriors…24 Warrington Wolves…24

Wigan: Lewis Tierney; Tom Davies, Liam Forsyth, Joe Burgess, Liam Marshall; George Williams, Josh Woods; Frank-Paul Nuuausala, Michael McIlorum, Ryan Sutton, Willie Isa, Liam Farrell, Sean O’Loughlin. Subs: Taulima Tautai, Joel Tomkins, Jack Wells, Callum Field.

Wolves: Stefan Ratchford; Matty Russell, Jack Hughes, Ryan Atkins, Tom Lineham; Kevin Brown, Kurt Gidley; Chris Hill, Daryl Clark, Mike Cooper, Ben Westwood, Benjamin Jullien, Joe Westerman. Subs: Dom Crosby, Joe Philbin, Brad Dwyer, George King.

Scoring: Marshall try, 8mins, Woods goal, 0-6; Clark try, 14mins, Ratchford goal, 6-6; Marshall try, 26mins, Williams goal, 6-12; Marshall try, 46mins, Williams goal, 6-18; Ratchford try, 52mins, 10-18; Lineham try, 57mins, Ratchford goal, 16-18; Ratchford penalty, 66mins, 18-18; Williams penalty, 71mins, 18-20; Hughes try, 75mins, Ratchford goal, 24-20; Burgess try, 80mins, 24-24.

Penalties: Wigan 8 Wolves 10

Sin bin: Tierney, 37mins (professional foul)

Referee: Ben Thaler

Attendance: 35,261 (aggregate)

Man of the match (live blog fan’s poll): Stefan Ratchford